The Brattens are dedicated Nicks fans: Mr Bratten was wearing his Fleetwood Mac T-shirt from the band’s previous Dunedin visit and the couple had also seen Nicks in New Plymouth — and they saw Hynde on her last New Zealand tour, too.

“Absolutely we wanted to see her again — she’s brilliant,” Mr Bratten said.

Fellow Christchurch devotees Liz Nichol and Steve Grant — the first fans seated in the front row — were savouring their view of proceedings.

“We were watching a documentary about her on television and I said to Steve ‘can we go see Stevie Nicks?’ and he said ‘yes’,” Ms Nichol said.

Nichol, a former singer in a country rock band, said she loved Nicks’ music and the couple had bought her CDs for years. Last night they had as good a view as a fan could possibly get of their idol.

Two of the younger fans at the front were Christchurch’s Andrew Te Groen and Brienna Henderson, who had no intention of missing last night’s show, having grown up with Nicks’ music.

“I’m a really big fan of both Fleetwood Mac and Stevie Nicks,” said Mr Te Groen.

“I sort of sneaked out from work and made sure we got good seats.”

Hynde and The Pretenders took no prisoners in their opening set, firing out hard-rocking tunes like Alone and Gotta Wait as an opening salvo, before playing fan favourites like Don’t Get Me Wrong and Brass In Pocket.

Hynde told the crowd she had spent a couple of days in Dunedin and loved the town. Highlights included seeing the Cirkopolis show and First Church.

“It really is just like the north of Scotland, if they had daylight up there.”